The 7th Victim - Alan Jacobson [130]
“Then you’d be wrong, Agent Vail. Because Thomas has already said he’d meet with me. He said it on MSNBC, just about a half hour ago.”
Vail resisted the urge to glance at the one-way mirror, behind which Bledsoe was seated. “Why Underwood?”
“The guy understands me. It’s a familiar face. This is important information. I deal with him.”
“You want something, you deal with me,” Vail said.
“Ooh. Tough woman. That turns me on, Special Agent Vail. Did you know that? Because if you didn’t, I can tell you Thomas Underwood does.”
Vail ground her teeth. She wanted to grab the guy’s jumpsuit lapels and shake him. Hard. But she counted backwards from five to calm her anger. “I’ll make a call, see if I can get Underwood here. As to getting your sentence commuted, I wouldn’t count on it. I can get you some T.V., a steak dinner every night—”
“Yeah, that’s good. MTV. I want my MTV. Add that to the list.”
“Mr. Singletary, I’ll make the calls, convey your demands. I just wouldn’t hold out much hope.”
“I don’t have much hope, sweetheart. I’m on death row. You hold out hope, you get disappointed.”
She nodded, then pushed away from the table.
“Just remember,” Singletary said. “You give me what I want, I’ll give you the name of the Dead Eyes killer.”
Vail stood there for a long moment, reading the man’s eyes. Tempted to agree to the deal even though she didn’t have the authority. Given all the death, the young lives taken and yet to be taken, the offer seemed too good to refuse.
But in her experience, making deals with the devil usually backfired.
fifty-seven
Vail let the door click closed behind her. Bledsoe met her and Del Monaco in the hallway, the detective’s normally olive-complected face red and strained.
“I spoke with Gifford,” Vail said. “He’s calling Underwood’s office. We’ll know soon whether or not he’ll come. Bureau will pay his airfare and hotel, any expenses.”
Del Monaco grunted. “We all know this deal turns on his sentence.”
“And that ain’t gonna happen,” Bledsoe said. “Imagine the heat the DA will take if he caves and recommends leniency to the governor.”
Vail shook her head. “Think about the heat he’ll take if Dead Eyes murders another woman and it gets out he could’ve prevented it.” She leaned her back against the wall, let her head touch the cold, painted cinderblock. “I think we need to make the deal. Contingent on arrest and conviction of Dead Eyes.”
Del Monaco stepped forward. “The guy’s set to die in five days, Karen. Delaying his execution even an hour sends a message. Once you’ve delayed it, it’s like you’ve made the decision to wait till the jury comes back with a verdict. You can’t suddenly decide you’re going to change your mind two or three months into it. You’re either in or out.”
“You don’t think we should do it,” Bledsoe said.
“Hey, I don’t get paid the big bucks to make those decisions. What I think doesn’t mean diddly.”
“I think Underwood’s our best shot,” Bledsoe said.
Del Monaco shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “There’s a bigger issue. How do we know this letter is even legit? And how do we know that Singletary really knows who Dead Eyes is? He could be jerking us around. Playing us, trying to buy himself some extra time.”
Vail pulled out her cell phone and began to dial. “Maybe the lab has some answers for us.”
She walked down the hall, pacing, waiting for the technician to take her call. But she knew the time spent hoping they had discovered something of value was wasted when the tech told her they hadn’t finished running the tests. They could tell her the type of paper it had been written on, the type of ink used to print it, and that there were no usable fingerprints other than a partial from Singletary.
“This guy dies in five days,” Vail said. “Any way we’ll have something soon—anything—that’ll tell us if this letter is from our killer?”
“Problem is that we’ve got no other writing samples to compare it to, nothing where we can match syntax, or even something as basic as handwriting.” The technician sighed. “But we’ll do our best. If there’s something to find,